270 : White Bellied Bustard

White Bellied Bustard - Eupodotus senegalensis 

I think 3 classifies as a collection so we are now starting a Bustard collection. We can tuck this away with Black Bellied and Kori's both seen in the Serengetti last year. Other favourite collections include my Hornbills, Barbets and Jacanas.

Again this picture was taken in Ruaha national park on one of last game drives. Unfortunately I had been taking some arial shots so I had the exposure compensation wacked up (otherwise a bird in a bright sky will just turn out black as the average metering for a DSLR camera will try and drag the image back and expose less as its all bright blue sky. You need to therefore over expose for a bird in the sky (even though its a bright sky) in order to get some detail. It seems counter intuitive and I have to really think about it to do it. If however you forget to turn the camera back to its normal position the next shot you take in normal conditions will be hideously over exposed. I have then 30 of so White Bellied Bustard shots that look like this !

I have had to to fiddle an awful lot to resurrect this Bustard. They are not the most natural looking shots but good enough is good enough.  It is shame because for a bird that spends its life wading through tall grass this individual decided to show himself quite well. Cakes in the rain and all that.

So I was smugly taking shot after shot all terrific but over exposed.

The bird was full view and then even stepped into open !

As things stand I have a series of very odd coloured picture that look like something from a 70's magazine.

So whats the rule !! However excited you are check after 2 or 3 and set back to your basic settings after each stop - ISO 100, F8, exposure compensation to zero, centre spot focus, slow continuous etc. What I need is a button that "returns to home" - perhaps  another button to to take it to the set up for an arial shot. That would would make life easier and save this from happening again. You have to keep your cool and work through it. Hard when you are looking at a bird you have never seen before in your life, its in a great position to photograph and you are not sure how long it is staying for.

White Bellied Bustard, Eupodotus senegalensis
Ruaha National Park, Tanzania
July 2013